Texas judge strikes part of No Surprises Act

The ruling strikes the regulation that governs how much insurers will pay to providers for disputed claims. The regulations stated that arbitrators of disputed claims should assume the correct amount for the insurer to pay is the median in-network rate for that geographic area, but the suit, filed by the Texas Medical Association and other doctors’ group, argues that such a presumption violated the language of the NSA itself and did not include factors like the training and quality of doctors. The court held that the NSA unambiguously establishes the framework for deciding payment disputes and that the rule conflicts with the statutory text.